Lenovo ditches IBM from ThinkPad early

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Lenovo, the desktop maker formerly known as IBM, is celebrating a solid set of quarterly results by announcing it will drop IBM's logo from its Think brand two years early.

Revenue for the quarter ended 30 September was up 20 per cent to $4.4bn and profit before tax and restructuring costs was $125m, up from $45m last year. Profit attributable to shareholders was $105m, up from $38m in the second quarter of last year.

Lenovo chief exec and president William Amelio said the company was making good progress and: "One important sign of this progress is our decision to completely transition our Think products from the IBM brand to the Lenovo brand two years earlier than planned."

The Chinese company will use its sponsorship of next year's Beijing Olympics to move to the Lenovo brand.

When Lenovo bought IBM's personal computing business it got the right to use the ThinkPad brand.

Notebooks were the biggest contributor to Lenovo's revenue growth - sales were up 42 per cent year on year and brought in 56 per cent of revenue in the quarter. Desktop sales grew 12 per cent to $1.8bn in total. But mobile handsets, mainly sold in China, fell 17 per cent, bringing in just $122m.

Greater China brought in revenues of $1.8bn, up 26.5 per cent on last year. The Americas contributed $1.2bn, up 12 per cent. Revenues in Europe, Middle East, and Africa were $865m, an increase of 16 per cent. Asia Pacific, except China, made sales of $539m, growth of 24 per cent.